


Stories

by lookinginthelight



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 03:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5812627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookinginthelight/pseuds/lookinginthelight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose gains the Doctor's trust as they exchange stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stories

They sit in front of the fireplace in the room he’s deemed the library. It’s more a haphazard collection of maps with precariously leaning stacks of books lining the walls. Proper shelves would never work on the TARDIS, Rose- books would fall right off! He calls it the library because it’s where he tells her stories.

At first, he was trying to impress her, she knew, but eventually, the stories changed. They became small parts of himself he was willing to give her, one by one. He could talk all day and never say a thing, but not in this room. In this room, their library, their sanctuary of stories, his words carried the heaviness of fleeting vulnerability. Rose felt that she had so little to offer him in return: only nineteen years for his nine hundred, but he assured her that it was more than enough. One night, not long after his regeneration, Rose asks him about home.

"The TARDIS is my home,” he deflects.

“No,” Rose counters, “Gallifrey.”

He hesitates. He looks at her and considers. He remembers when she held the time vortex. He remembers her hesitance at his new body; then her uninhibited trust after so little time. Rose’s arm has found its usual place along the back of the couch. Her fingers are combing mindlessly through his hair. He takes it as reassurance.

He looks over at her.

He takes a deep breath. He tells her of Gallifrey, of a home he’s too afraid to call home anymore. He begins with the suns, the grass, the mountains. But soon he’s telling her of the flames, the destruction, the loss of all he knew. He feels tears coming.

He stops.

She knows how this ends, anyway. At his silence, Rose looks up at him. She shifts her position to see his face better. He’s staring into the fireplace, and Rose wonders if he can think of anything but the flames. She pulls herself towards him and kisses his jaw. He jumps, but he’s smiling now.

He takes her hand and whispers,

_“Thank you.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Reposted from whofic. Written for the "I Bring Life" project on tumblr.


End file.
